Sophia Muradyan of the World Bank Group on Acceleration in Sub Saharan Africa. Presented at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Johannesburg, South Africa.

2. Trade & Competitiveness
GP
 Sustainable,InclusiveGrowth
 Expand Markets
 Create Jobs
 Raise Incomes
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Unit
 Innovation-Led Growth
 Increased Rates of Start-Ups
 Higher Firm Productivity
World Bank Group
 End Extreme Poverty
 Increase Shared Prosperity

3. =+
Knowledge Piloting with
partners
Scaling up

4. AGRIBUSINESS
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
DIGITAL
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
CLEAN
TECHNOLOGY
EARLY STAGE
FINANCE
WOMEN’S
ENTREPRENEURSHIP

7. What does acceleration mean in SSA?
The study to answer this question was comprised of three components:
• Assessment of the models at least 20 existing acceleration programs
in select countries of Sub-Saharan Africa
• In-depth assessment of 8 acceleration programs (case studies)
• Quantitative venture-level survey of accepted and rejected
entrepreneurs in selected APs

8. Questions and Definitions
Key research question:
• Are accelerators effective?
• If so, what makes them effective?
• Are they more or less effective in good or challenging ecosystems?
Defining acceleration programmes:
• Time bound: max 12 months
• Cohort-based: “class” of entrepreneurs
• Open intake: some ventures are selected, others not
• Provide some form of access to finance and mentorship
Selecting acceleration programs:
• Establishing an ecosystem contrast: Scoring of entrepreneurial ecosystems on 6 ecosystem
domains, using a combination of global datasets , 100+ data points (“crowd-intelligence”
approach)
• Quantitative scoring of entrepreneurial ecosystems, based on indicators drawn from GEDI, GCI,
WB ES, WB DB, Prosperity Index and Innovation Index – scores are relative and normalized

9. Initial Findings
• While there are 200+ organisations named “accelerators” in SS Africa, we
identified 41 that satisfied traditional definition
• 24 APs in 11 Sub-Saharan African countries were assessed
• only 39% of the programs put particular emphasis on a rigorous selection
process, involving external judges, investors and entrepreneurs
• only 38% actually offers a guaranteed financial grant or investment for
some or all participants
• 63% of the sampled APs are predominantly donor- or philanthropy-
funded.
• Over 53% have less than 1 mentor available per participant

10. Types of APs
Supporters Generalists
Networkers
Capital
providers

11. Key Characteristics of APs in SSA
Differences Between APs
Characteristics Developing Ecosystems Mature Ecosystems
Program
Structure
Selection process
Reasonably competitive, focus on ventures from same city
or country-wide
Competitive, focus on ventures from around the country and
from neighbouring countries
Technololgy/ Sector focus Rather broad (50% specific) Narrow (73% specific)
Cohort Structure Yes Yes
Length of program On average 4 months On average 7 months
Operations
Office space offered Majority (78% yes) Minority (22% yes)
Mentoring Yes (88%), small mentor pool Yes (60%), small mentor pool
Technical Assistance Business skills & mentoring
Mentoring & access to capital (mainly in the form of pitch
events)
Post-Program Support Limited, mainly access to shared space Yes, networking events & some form of investor connection
Capita
l
Funding/Capital
No capital raising mandate, some provide guaranteed
grants or investments
28% have capital raising mandate
Equity Stake 40% takes equity – with an average equity share of 3.8% 33% take equity – with an average equity share of 8.7%
Networking
Networking with Investors Yes (75%) Yes (73%)
Networking with customers &
suppliers
Yes (63%) Somewhat (47%)
Cohort & Alumni networking Varies (short but regular) Yes (long and irregular)

12. Type of Entrepreneurs Served

14. Regional Acceleration Programs
• Intensive programs consisting of one-on-one mentorship and
coaching and access to investors through a combination of residential
and virtual training and business model refinement
• Launched in November 2016 in Senegal and Kenya
• Implemented on a regional level
• Each program to identify 40 high-growth potential digital
entrepreneurs to support through 6 months program

15. Pan-African Acceleration Program
• Overall objective: to
increase investment
readiness of the
most promising
digital entrepreneurs
across the continent
Key
Components
Selection
of 20
entrepr.
Virtual
Mentoring
2-weeks
residential
program
Demo Day

16. Thank You!
smuradyan@worldbank.org
www.infodev.org